Carney quizzed on Jesus, Constitution

1/30/13 3:41 PM EST

White House press secretary Jay Carney got a doozy of a question on Wednesday - about moral decline, religious liberty, Jesus and the Constitution:

CARNEY: On the -- yes, sir?

Q: Dr. Harper of the InterMountain Christian News. And regarding religious liberty, faith issues, a lot of Christian churches want to know about how this (inaud.) relates to the problems we’re going through as a nation economically and otherwise that would believe that our religious faith liberties -- faith and religious liberties and rights come from Jesus, not men.

CARNEY: I'm sorry. I didn't get the question.

Q: Oh, I'll rephrase that.

Basically, you know, the Christian churches in our nation are concerned about the moral decline in our nation and how, you know, faith and religious liberty issues in life are crucial, from the Declaration of Independence, and how that they would believe that our rights come from Jesus, not men. How would the administration respond to that?

CARNEY: Well, I'm not sure that I have an administration response. I would tell you that the president, as a man of faith, believes very deeply in the importance that it plays in his life and understands clearly the importance it plays in the lives of so many millions of Americans.
Yes?